What is our “Big Bet”?

In a recent posting on eJewish Philanthropy, Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, CEO of Mechon Hadar, urged philanthropic and lay leaders to ask themselves “what are the financial decisions we, as a Jewish community, are making now that will have significant consequences for the future?”

“Make some big bets,” Rabbi Kaunfer pleaded at a plenary conference of the Jewish Funders’ Network. He does not disclose his own “big bet” preferences. But he defines how we might choose an appropriate one for our own community. “The end game must be to foster a world of deep Jewish living and meaning. In order to bring that world about, we need creative risk-takers. And we need many, many more dollars than we are spending.”

Applying Rabbi Kaunfer’s definition of a worthy big bet aimed to help “foster a world of deep Jewish living and meaning, there is no doubt in our mind, what that would be: making Jewish education affordable.

If we had a direct line into the philanthropic community of the GTA, we would plead with our community’s generous philanthropists to place their big bet on Jewish education. There is no better way to help “foster a world of deep Jewish living and meaning.”